(From company literature) Velbon Ultra-MAXi. 5-section legs makes this perfect tripod 155 cm long when fully extended and just 35 cm short when folded. Very light (0.96 kg) and steady tripod designed for compact digital cameras and camcorders with exceptional performance. All MAXi tripods feature Velbon's patented Trunnion Shaft legs, which have non-piercing bolts. This allows each inner leg section to occupy the full space inside the outer leg and makes MAXi tripods compact when folded, but tall when extended. Case is included.

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 9

Pros:

Extremely compact and very stable for its size and weight

Cons:

Head doesn't work well for panoramas

This is an amazingly good little tripod. It is extremely small and light, so small and light that you may actually take it with you, even if you aren't a very regular tripod user, and so have it available when the occasional shot that really demands a tripod comes along. At those times, even a less-than-perfect tripod is infinitley better than none, and this tripod is a lot closer to perfect than any other I have tried in this size range.

The trunnion leg design is clever and really works. you rotate the end of the leg once, pull it out to the desired length, and rotate it in the opposite direction once. That's it. No endless flippling of levers or (even worse) loosening or tightening of knobs and collars for each leg section.

The head design is pretty good. I would really prefer a head with independent controls for rotation and back-to-front and side-to-side tilt, so each could be adjusted independently, and the rotation one could be used for panoramas without accidentally changing the tilt. That arrangenemt for flipping it sideways for side-to-side tilt feels flimsy, though I have never yet had it give way unexpectedly (but I crank it down very tightly). Very importantly, and unlike many other small light heads I have used, this one does NOT have the maddening habit of changing angles slightly as you tighten up to fix it at the composition you want. for that, I can forgive its other annoyances.

The tripod folds to about 14 inches long and extends high enough that I can see through the finder of an SLR with only a slight stoop, and is reasonably rigid at that extension, particularly if you hang a camera bag or other heavy object from it. I have taken 30 second exposures that show no evidence of camera shake.

This is presntly my most used tripod. I used to use other compact models but this one is far more solid with a far better head than any of the other compacts I have tried, and I am much more prone to actually take it with me than I am to take any of my larger heavier Manfrotto tripods.